Achives: teaching english in spain

If you are contemplating moving abroad to teach English, and fancy a dose of la vida loca, Spain could be just the place for you; a country with a knack for being ridiculously successful at sport, a dedication to good food and drink, and where to fiesta until the very early hours is the norm not the exception. Add to this a large demand for EFL teachers and Spain is without doubt an excellent location for the EFL teacher.

As you can’t help but be aware, Spain has had a pretty rough deal recently, a huge economic crisis has resulted in scarily large unemployment figures particularly among young people. The generally agreed view among the Spanish is that one way to resolve this crisis is to improve their level of English. Unemployed workers are admirably committing to learning English while they search for work. Likewise employed workers are keen to take English classes to help secure their jobs as are their companies equally committed to providing English classes for their staff. Also the Spanish education system has re-examined the way English is taught and is now very much geared to having native English speakers present in schools. This is a general rule for the whole of Spain, with the highest demand for EFL teachers in Madrid and big cities (with the exception of Barcelona). This explosion of EFL work in Spain over the last few years means not only is it relatively easy to find work but you also have choice over they type of EFL work you want to do.

By Will Peach
A site editor at Gap Daemon, the gap year community website for backpackers and gap year travellers.

One of the great perks of launching into a TEFL career is the amount of free time that’s on offer. Couple that with the ability to teach private classes, and some teachers are able to take advantage of a very decent income.

To the newly qualified teacher however, finding private students, especially in countries like Spain, can be intimidating to say the least. When things operate mainly on a word-of-mouth basis, as they do in smaller parts of the country, it’s tough to know how to get started.

What follows are a couple tried and tested formulas that I have found success with in gaining private students in my part of Spain, Extremadura. There’s no reason why they shouldn’t work for you!

Spain is a remarkable country with abundance on offer. From aromatic, mouth watering paella to appetizingly tantalising tapas; from the Sierra Nevada mountain range to the inviting beaches of Costa Del Sol; the intrepid Gaudi influenced Barcelona to the bustling market places of Madrid, Spain has it covered.

If this is your idea of an ideal TEFL spot, then Teaching English in Spain is certainly an experience we would recommend because…